Plasma cells produce antibodies to fight off pathogens like bacteria... Mine are party animals with OCD. Reproducing and spewing the same useless antibody with a bit to much glee. The docs call it Myeloma.

Wednesday, December 19, 2007

Wogo

"Wo go" is not what you say to a spastic horse. Its a traditional Chinese medicine herb. As you can imagine when you are told "We can't cure what ails you but we have a pretty good idea you'll live longer if you try this rather nasty stuff we whipped up in the lab." you begin to look around for other brewers of less nasty concoctions with a bit of efficacy.

Dr. Min Li-Weber of the Division of Immunogenetics headed by Prof. Dr. Peter Krammer has been concentrating on pure substances from herbs that are used in traditional Chinese medicine. Investigating their ability to trigger apoptosis (cell death), the scientist has recently come across an interesting candidate: the substance wogonin, a plant flavone from Baikal skullcap. Wogonin causes apoptosis in leukemia cells in the culture dish, while it has virtually no damaging effect on healthy blood cells. Wogonin also led to reduced cancer growth in mice that had been transplanted human leukemia cells. [ref]

Wogonin increases the level of hydrogen peroxide inside the cancer cell leading to cell death. Hydrogen peroxide is one of my favorite disinfectants. Dispensing it on a selective cell by cell method is most appealing. Maybe Baikal skullcap will perform a two fold purpose, shielding my fragle skull and disinfecting my bone marrow. :-)

3 comments:

It just so happens that I am taking this stuff right NOW. So, what a coincidence to read your post about wogonin this morning. I am taking Scutellaria baicalensis (also known as Chinese skullcap; I wrote a page about it on my blog some time ago) which contains a percentage of baicalein, baicalin AND wogonin. Baicalein is a specific mm-cell-killer in vitro, by the way. Of course, I hope the same will be true in vivo! Can't wait for my next blood tests!Have a great Xmas, L.P.C.! :-)Margaret in Florence (Italy) P.S. We have a small fake Xmas tree (pretty thing, though) that our kitten Peekaboo keeps knocking over. I don't think any of the ornaments will make it to next week...we've never had such a mischievous kitty! ;-) So cute, though!